| dc.description.abstract | The structure of the present dissertation takes on a more comprehensive and comparative approach to the study of the Zen thoughts. The study will first begin with a literature review confirming the characteristics of thoughts from Master Da-Mo（達磨） to Master HONG-REN（弘忍） to establish the structure of thoughts therein. Then, the Hui-neng（慧能） thoughts in “The Platform Sutra of the Sixth Patriarch” will be clarified on the basis of the features of thought in early periods of Zen. Basically, Hui-neng got enlightened in his “Buddha-nature”（佛性） from his practice of “wu”（無）, while Mazu Daoyi（馬祖道一）, the pivotal figure of the Zen of thoughts in China, preached a Zen thought with more emphasis on “zuo yong jian xing.” “zuo yong”（作用,Function） represents the prajñā （般若）thoughts and the contents of “jian xing”（見性） naturally deals with Buddha-nature（佛性）. Both of them resonate in the vein of thoughts to a certain degree. Therefore, it is necessary to enter the world of Mazu Daoyi’s Zen thoughts by understanding Hui-neng’s Zen disciplines. What is intriguing is when the discussion of prajñā thoughts dominates the Zen thoughts, the Subjectivity （主體性）concept has also become more and more obvious, with Linji-Yixuan（臨濟義玄） bringing forth “true man of no rank,” （無位真人,wu-wui chen-jen） which happened after Mazu Daoyi’s Zen discipline and is also the concern of our present study.
Overall, Mazu Daoyi can be said to be the intermediary figure in China’s Zen thoughts. He followed Hui-neng, began the Southern Zen（南宗禪） discipline and established the the far-reaching Hong- zhou School（洪州宗）. Consequently, the focus of the present study is to closely inspect the contents of Zen thoughts and features, confirm the status of Mazu Daoyi in the history of thoughts, and explore how greatly his discipline impacted on the later periods of Zen.
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